A Traditional Christmas
by I Double Dare You
Summary: Sirius has always dreaded Christmas but Remus is determined to change that. Pre-Azkaban. Sirius/Remus.


_Title: A Traditional Christmas _

_Rating: M. Honestly, you should know me by now._

_Pairing: Sirius/Remus_

_Summary: Sirius has always dreaded Christmas but Remus is determined to change that. Pre-Azkaban. Sirius/Remus._

_Warnings: Swearing, homoerotica. You know, the usual. _

_Notes: This can be considered a side chapter to my other fic, 'Alcohol and Unrequited Love: Disaster's In The Air', as this concerns Sirius and Remus' first Christmas together in their new flat and runs quite well with the other story's plot, so if you want to think of it as an add-on, epilogue, or stand alone fic, be my guest. Whatever makes my readers happy ;) _

_Also, to those who are reading Here There Be Monsters, the next chapter should be up in a couple of days. I haven't given up on it, I've just been super busy. I'm really sorry about the ridiculous delay, but maybe while you wait, this fic will tide you over. :)_

_I tried to make this one short, I wrote it in the middle of cooking Christmas dinner last year and just finished it off. I thought about Sirius and Remus while putting the turkey back in the oven – which might explain why I burnt my arm :/ _

_But it doesn't quite explain why the roast potato smelled like Bourbon. _

_Bugger._

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

_A thump. A rustle. A scritchety scratch sound._

Sirius raised his eyebrows.

_Scritchety scratch sound_? _What in Merlin's name...?_

He sat up from where he'd been reclining on the lumpy, worn couch, reading a Quidditch magazine – special Christmas edition. He knew that Remus had been digging through the stuff in the spare room but he hadn't thought to ask what he'd been looking for; he'd simply assumed it had something to do with boring books so was naturally uninterested. Now he wished he had asked. There was the same scratching sound now coming from down the hallway and it seemed to be moving towards him. It was loud, getting louder and he couldn't for the life of him think what it was. He turned to look, and jumped in alarm as an enormous box sailed through the air towards him and then passed him, the green thing sticking out of it missing his face by inches. Gaping, he watched as Remus came strolling after it, smudges of dust and... _glitter?_... on his robes. Remus spared him a glance and a grin but no explanation.

Sirius continued to watch as Remus flicked his wand and the box slowly sank to the floor with a soft thump and a strange jingling sound. Sirius stood and approached with caution. At a closer look, the thing that had nearly poked him in the face was actually a branch, _a tree branch_, sticking out of the box and he realised that that must have been what was making the scratching noise as it scraped against the wall when it had been floating down the hall.

_Oh, a tree. Christmas, right._

Curiosity diminished and slightly disappointed, Sirius shoved his hands into his pockets and watched as Remus knelt down beside the box, opening it to reveal a large and very real Christmas tree.

"Since when do we have a Christmas tree?"

Remus focused on rearranging the branches slightly so he could pull the tree from the box without snapping them off, moving with the patience and attention to detail he applied to all aspects of his life. Then he answered, voice strangely laced with happiness, "My parents gave it to us when we first moved in. They knew we don't have money to buy all new things for ourselves for Christmas, so they gave us theirs".

Sirius watched silently as Remus levitated the tree out of the box and guided it slowly to rest next to the fireplace. He then raised his eyebrows as Remus leaned forward to inhale the smell of the tree deeply. Remus then turned and pinched the sleeve of Sirius' robe to pull him forward to stand next to him. "Can you smell it?", he said, eyes shining in uncharacteristic excitement, "It's a real tree, my father put a preserving spell on it to keep it fresh for a couple of years for us".

Sirius sniffed.

It smelled of freshness and forests and the deep, musty smell of nature. He wasn't averse to the smell but he still couldn't understand Remus' excitement. _It was a fucking tree for Godric's sake._

He hummed noncommittally but his lack of enthusiasm went unnoticed as Remus turned back to the tree, pulling and pushing at branches to make it sit just so.

Sirius had never really liked Christmas. He had always dreaded it as the time when while he was young his mother would force him into stiff, uncomfortable dress robes and make him sit straight and silent at the dinner table when they entertained their pureblood guests while they all complained about mudbloods and half-breeds. Relatives would visit too and he would be graced with the snide presence of his cousins who preferred light torture as way of greeting their younger cousin. They would steal things from his room and throw them to each other, laughing when he shouted at them and eventually crowing successfully when shameful tears of frustration ran down his face. Then his mother would appear and screech at him about making too much noise and disrupting their guests and he'd be confined to his room for days. Christmas day was never much good either as his parents only bought he and his brother gifts that they deemed would aid them to become better Blacks and purebloods. Stiffer dress robes and books on the adventures of a pureblood hero, ridding the earth of filthy mudbloods and muggles wherever he went were commonplace. And once, when his favourite Aunt Andromeda gave him a kitten for Christmas, his mother had ordered Kreacher to drown 'the filthy vermin' in the bath while a sobbing Sirius was forced to watch so he would never think of bringing such filth into the house again.

Then later when he'd run away to live with the Potters, he'd been given a more cheerful version of Christmas but he'd still not been quite fond of the holiday. Mr and Mrs Potter treated him like their own son, including him in everything that was normally reserved solely for James, their only son. And James was overjoyed at finally having someone, his best friend no less, to share such things with and as a result, Christmas with the Potters was the best he'd ever had. But there was still something wrong. As he and the Potters sat around the Christmas tree, opening Christmas presents, he'd paused for a minute and watched the Potter family interact. Despite the significantly large pile of brilliant presents in front of him, courtesy of his friends and Mr and Mrs Potter, he couldn't help but feel as if he didn't belong there. They had a family and Christmas was a family tradition, a holiday centered around family, and there he sat, deserted and hated by his own blood relatives and intruding on another family's Christmas. No matter how kind the Potters were, he'd felt out of place. Christmas, more than anything, was a reminder that he didn't belong anywhere.

So it wasn't surprising that he didn't quite jump to help Remus set up the Christmas tree.

He watched dully from his place standing by the box as a seemingly endless stream of pixie lights flowed from the end of Remus' wand and wrapped around the tree. He wished he could share some of Remus' uncharacteristic giddy cheerfulness. He hated being the wet blanket. But already he could feel the stormy dread of Christmas coming over him, the cold feeling in his stomach of being lost and left out and belonging nowhere. He shifted uncomfortably. Whenever he got these sort of unpleasant feelings he always felt the need to wreak havoc, play pranks and generally be declared a nuisance by practically everyone. Now he had the sudden urge to transfigure Remus' tea bags to scream shrilly so whenever Remus went to make his tea (predictable like clockwork, he was) so they would shriek when he poured boiling water over them. Or maybe he'd melt all of Remus' chocolate hoards together and transfigure them to make giant chocolate dicks. Or maybe even release as many chocolate frogs as possible in their bathroom just as Remus would be getting ready for a shower. Promising ideas, he mused silently, feeling a sinister grin creep onto his face.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on what side you saw things from), Remus caught sight of the evil grin and his assault on the tree was abandoned.

"Whatever it is, you have my unconditional disapproval. Stop planning whatever monstrous scheme that's put that grin on your face or I'll get you books for Christmas".

Sirius' grin only widened. "As long as they have either motorbikes, Quidditch, or you starkers in them, then I think that wouldn't be too bad".

"Is that so? How about books on muggle domestic life? Maybe you need to read up on cleaning and cooking the Muggle way", Remus suggested dryly, his eyebrow arching in a challenge.

Sirius' smile dropped. "That's inhumanely cruel, Remus. Not even you are that sick".

Remus' eyebrows rose as his mouth quirked in the way that said, "You really think so?"

Sirius sighed and turned to flop back down on the couch in a mighty huff. And that really was one hell of a mighty huff, coming from Sirius.

"Cheer up, Scrooge; it's Christmas!", Remus chided teasingly, charming some red tinsel to snake around the tree.

"What did you just call me?"

"Scrooge. It's a muggle Christmas story where an old man called Scrooge hates Christmas and is visited by three ghosts who show him the error of his ways. They take him to the future, past and present to show him why he should have some Christmas spirit".

"Sounds stupid", Sirius concluded, frowning sullenly, "Ghosts would never waste their time doing pointless stuff like that. All the ones I know prefer living in Muggles' attics and scaring the hell out of them".

Remus sighed, glancing over at Sirius, taking in the sulky picture he made, sprawled on the couch on his stomach, chin resting on his crossed arms and and face pulled into a sullen frown.

"It's supposed to communicate how Christmas should be a happy time, a time when you should be kind and giving", he said pointedly, to which Sirius just snorted.

Remus became silent for a while, arranging the tinsel around the tree neatly while he thought about Sirius and his aversion to Christmas. He knew that growing up in the strict, cold and frequently abusive Black household, Sirius would have few fond memories of Christmas but he wanted to change that. Christmas in the Lupin household had always been the best time of the year for him. His parents would make the extra effort to be cheerful, his father enlarging the lounge room with magic and then taking him to get the biggest tree that they could find, each year trying to outdo the last. Then his mother would sing Christmas carols, both muggle and wizard, while she wandered around the house, hanging up decorations and smiling brightly until the house was a burst of colour. The house always smelled of warm ginger and chocolate and the tree lit up the whole house, but most importantly, it was the one time of year when his parents pretended to forget his ailment. Just for a few weeks they would stop searching obsessively for a cure for lycanthropy and they would make the effort to have no guilty, pitying looks or silences when he walked into the room. It was such a warm relief to him to feel almost normal in his own house that he came to look forward to Christmas all year, even though his parents could rarely afford to get him many presents or have a big, lavish dinner. And he couldn't imagine what it would be like to not have that respite every year, just those couple of weeks to forget troubles and simply be happy for no reason. He wanted Sirius to experience that and have the same joy he found in Christmas.

He looked over at Sirius, chin still resting on his arms and face frozen in a stormy expression as he was no doubt remembering previous, joyless Christmas'.

"You never have to have Christmas' like that again, Sirius. I'll make sure of it", he said softly but loud enough to break through Sirius' trance. Sirius glanced at him briefly but said nothing.

"I know that Christmas is primarily a family time and that naturally that would make you hate it, living with yours... but you told me yourself that they're not your family anymore", still Sirius said nothing so Remus continued speaking firmly but softly, "You have a new family now. Lily, James, Peter and me. We're your family – _I'm_ your family. There are people who want to spend time with you at Christmas and make it a happy time; it will be everything you never had. I'll make sure of it".

Sirius was silent for so long that Remus thought he had zoned out again until finally, he heard the quietest of murmurs.

"I don't belong anywhere".

It was said so quietly that Remus almost didn't hear it and in fact, he suspected he wasn't supposed to. Those words, spoken with such uncharacteristic hopelessness tore at his heart and his hands faltered as they rearranged the tinsel.

"You belong with me", he said gently as he turned to look at Sirius, willing him to look back, "This is _our_ Christmas, it's just you and me. If Christmas is a family tradition then you're my family and I'm going to give you the Christmas you never got to have".

As he spoke, Remus finished arranging the tinsel around the tree, nestling it behind the lights like his mother had shown him so the colourful lights would reflect off the tinsel and decorations. Silently, he took a decoration from the box at his feet and held it out in offering to Sirius who was watching him thoughtfully. Sirius stared for a moment at the large gold star, destined to sit atop of the tree, held between Remus' fingers. The prospect of a new life hung suspended before him, a chance at happiness, a chance to prove his worth not simply to the world but to the person who meant the most to him and throw off his family's influence all together. Despite his psychotic, hateful family, he had found this chance and he wouldn't let what they had done ruin this as they had ruined so much of his childhood.

He rose from the couch and gently took the ornament from Remus' fingers.

His eyes met Remus' and he offered him a brief, grateful smile before reaching up and holding the tree still as he slid the star onto the topmost branch of their Christmas tree.

They stood together silently for a few seconds before Remus pressed a sweet, chaste kiss to his mouth, then smiled warmly at him and bent to bring out more decorations from the box. Sirius considered the currently rather bare tree while absently slipping his hand into the back pocket of Remus' jeans, more out of the habit of being close to him than being in the mood for anything more. Remus' only response was a smirk and an eye-roll before he hung two ornaments onto the tree; a red and gold bauble and a fragile looking glass snowflake.

"It's our Christmas, you said", Sirius said thoughtfully, staring up at the golden star.

"Yes", Remus agreed slowly, glancing sideways in suspicion at the man beside him.

"Then we should personalize it", Sirius suddenly grinned alarmingly, "You know, give it our own flair".

With that, Sirius' hand retreated from Remus' pocket before reaching into his own to retrieve his wand. A complicated wave and flick later and the star on top of the tree had turned into a convincingly realistic miniature lion perched on the branch, staring down at them, twitching its tail and shaking its mane. Another spell and the silver tinsel begun to flash alternating red and gold.

"This is a Gryffindor household after all", Sirius pointed out cheerfully, thinking that this would be truly nice change from the silver and green house that his parents preferred at Christmas. Remus sighed but he didn't try to conceal his smile.

"I really should have seen this coming".

"No, no, Moony, that's not all! Watch this", Sirius said excitedly, tapping the lights so they began to glow brightly, at which point the lion let out a deafening and rather convincing roar. Remus looked up, surprised but seeming to be rather disenchanted with the Gryffindor theme.

"That better not keep doing that; the neighbours are bound to wonder what's going on here".

"It will only do it every half an hour. Besides," Sirius leaned down, grinning as he murmured into Remus' ear, "I'm sure they're used to all sorts of odd sounds coming from our place. Hmm, Moony, my love?"

"I agree: your high-pitched shrieking is quite difficult to ignore", Remus smirked, although he didn't pull away when Sirius slipped an arm around his waist and pressed his front to Remus' back.

Sirius looked affronted. "Since when do I ever shriek?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Would you prefer the term 'manly bellowing'?", Remus quipped, turning his head slightly so he could see and feel Sirius' bark of laughter behind him.

"If I remember rightly, it was you doing the shrieking last night", Sirius murmured, his hands brushing suggestively over Remus' stomach.

"You remember wrongly", Remus replied, eyes fluttering closed at the sensations of Sirius' lips on his neck and his hands drifting down his stomach, "I never shriek".

"Hmm, you sure?"

Hands slid beneath his shirt, stroking the smooth skin and following the suggestive trail of hair downwards.

Remus' breathing became more laboured. "Positive".

"What about if I do this?", Sirius murmured before gently closing his teeth over the spot below Remus' ear. Almost involuntarily, Remus pressed back against him.

"And this?", Sirius undid the button on Remus' jeans and slowly pulled down the zip, his fingers stroking Remus through his briefs. Remus gasped but he held a margin of his self control. They had, after all, just been decorating the tree and now was not the time for what Sirius was doing to him.

"We shouldn't. We haven't finished decorating the tree yet and-"

He was cut off by his own gasp as Sirius suddenly pulled him free of his briefs and gripped him firmly. He slid his hand up and down, smiling as Remus bit his lip and sunk his short nails into Sirius' encircling arms.

"Oh, you think we should stop?"

Remus nodded silently, his fringe falling over his eyes as his head bowed but his hips betrayed him, jerking into Sirius' warm hands and clearly asking for more. His knees were beginning to buckle and Sirius' arms was largely holding him up now as he shuddered and gripped Sirius' encircling forearms tightly. The hand on his cock withdrew momentarily as Sirius spat into his own hand and then warm, wet pressure was gripping him again while Sirius' erection, still trapped in his jeans, was prodding him from behind. Remus' breath was escaping him in short bursts, his breathing uneven, his heart racing and as he raised his head slightly, the colourful shining Christmas lights twinkled prettily at him as their light bounced off the flashing tinsel like something from a dream. His hips were moving faster into Sirius' hand, which followed Remus' lead and sped up, gripping him tightly as Sirius alternately murmured encouragement into his ear and sucked on his neck. Telltale tingles rushed through his body, his muscles shuddering violently in their wake and his head began to feel light, the pleasure rushing from his groin and centering in his head. It all came crashing together in one bright moment. His mouth fell open in a silent scream that turned into a shaky cry as his sticky release covered his stomach and Sirius' still pumping hand.

Remus was hardly aware of being lowered to the floor, a boneless dead-weight. Sirius lowered himself to sit behind him so Remus was resting back against him in a slouched sitting position, his head resting back against Sirius' shoulder as his eyes focused on the rather bare but colourful, bright tree before them.

Arms wrapped securely around him as Sirius grinned. "I wouldn't mind this becoming a Christmas tradition, you know".

Remus snorted, turning his head to nuzzle his nose into Sirius' neck. "First comes the tree".

Sirius was puzzled for a moment by Remus' words but then he promptly forgot to be puzzled as Remus kissed his neck slowly and languidly.

"Then the lights go on", Remus continued leisurely, his warm, moist breath trailing over Sirius' chest and stomach as he slowly turned and slid onto his stomach in front of Sirius.

"The tinsel goes on next", Sirius finally realised what Remus was talking about and he let out a bark of laughter as hands began undoing his jeans.

"Then the star", Sirius murmured, falling in step with Remus as his hand slid into the soft, honey brown hair.

Remus smirked, pulling Sirius from his jeans and briefs. "Next comes a fairly decent handjob, an outstanding blowjob, and then the decorations. And that, my dear Padfoot, is how we put up a Christmas tree in this household".

OOOOOOOOO

Remus' description turned out to be quite accurate and Sirius lay on his back in a blissful daze on the warm rug in front of the tree with Remus slumped, tired and content, over his chest.

"I'd say that was more than outstanding, Monsieur Moony", Sirius murmured, grinning lazily, "I give you an Exceeds Expectations".

Remus snickered. Silently, Sirius wove his hand into the now extremely messy honey brown strands of Remus' hair, marveling at how good he looked with a severe case of sex hair.

"I don't think I'm going to end up minding Christmas so much after all", he murmured, smiling back when Remus turned to look up at him.

Sirius was just about to go for a humble post-sex snog when the flames in their fireplace swelled into a roaring inferno and turned green. Both of them recognised the signs of someone using Floo powder and they panicked, scrambling to make themselves decent.

"Hey guys, Lily wanted me to bring these over for-".

James had stepped neatly out of the flames, carefully carrying a plate of what looked like charmed gingerbread men biscuits but he stopped in his tracks as he caught sight of Sirius and Remus on the floor, their hair mussed and wild and hastily zipping up their flies.

His loud, colourful suggestion of putting a lock on the fireplace when they didn't want to be disturbed (something along those lines, anyway) was drowned out by the deafening, alarming roar of the lion perched on top of the tree. With the combination of the frightening roar and James' violent jump, Lily's charmed gingerbread men let out squeals of terror and dived off the plate he was holding. Most landed intact on the floor and made a break for it, running all over Sirius and Remus' apartment, scurrying and hiding like terrified and strangely appetizing mice.

Even while tripping over each other laughing as they all sought to catch the escapee biscuits and through James' cursing, Sirius found himself managing to look forward to the rest of this Christmas with Remus and all the ones that would follow.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

_I hope you guys liked it! I know that the smut wasn't nearly as graphic or long as my other fics but it just seemed to suit the story better for it to be shorter. _

_I love reviews! They set me into a writing frenzy and I can't imagine a better way to be! Please? :F_

_Thanks for reading!_


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